For those of you who know us in real life, this may come as a surprise, but we here at Off The Beaten Tracks are – honestly – good-natured souls really. So when the folk behind Oxjam Edinburgh came asking, we didn’t even draw breath. What started out as a genuine attempt to join in with a group of folk who were (and are) genuinely trying to make a difference in the world we all live in, ended up on one Sunday in Leith as a collection of sessions that we are slightly miffed we didn’t come up with on our own.
The Oxjam Edinburgh (buy tickets) event is going off on 23rd October across many venues in Edinburgh, and is going to be brilliant from top to bottom, so if you haven’t got your ticket yet, you should do that right now – but in the meantime, we’re delighted to have been a part of the build-up, and to have spent the afternoon in the company of all these bands, and to have caught them all live and in real time.
First up were The Last Battle, who showed up with more babies than were necessary, but with less instruments than they needed. Not only that, but they’d never – not once – played in front of any crowd at all. We think you’ll agree, given that this is a record of their first ever live outing, that this outfit have promise beyond nomal expectations. Great things beckon, we think, great things.
The second act up here, Meursault, on the other hand, have no need at all to prove anything to anyone. All this session does is prove that they may well be peerless amongst the capital’s super-dense and super-talented music scene. Even if Neil’s voice threatened to destroy our microphones.
Meanwhile, Adam from the ever-attention-grabbing Y’All Is Fantasy Island joined in the fun with a set of songs that quite patently should have been electrified, but that – acoustically – still demonstrated how scared you should all be of plugging him in. The man’s a force of nature, and no mistake.
To finish up, there may be no more loveable, no more admirable, no more understatedly musical outfit at work today in Scotland than The Occasional Flickers, who managed to drop in a truly cuddly set of unbearably grabbable songs, almost without anyone noticing how knockout they were. Just magic.
It was a really great day for us to be a part of, and we’re delighted we got to share it – all we ask in return is that you support the bands you see here, and buy your ticket to Oxjam Edinburgh.
Bands playing are Frightened Rabbit (Scott solo set), Meursault, Dead Boy Robotics, Conquering Animal Sound, Y’All Is Fantasy Island, Jesus H. Foxx, The Last Battle, Woodenbox With a Fistful of Fivers, Pose Victorious, Come On Gang, Boycotts, The Occasional Flickers, Chutes, The Little Kicks, Le Reno Amps, Paper Beats Rock, My Electric Love Affair, Shellsuit Massacre and more subject to confirmation…
Venues are Cabaret Voltaire, Sneaky Pete’s, The City Cafe, The Bowery and The Wee Red Bar.
